A Bluetooth question

pmrid (Peter) · #1 05-09-2011, 09:56 AM

I'm re-installing on a nice new i7 PC after the old faithful Lenovo decided it wanted a quieter life.
The new beast runs a 64-bit Win7 Premium.
All going well, more or less, until I started to get a bluetooth dongle to rrun a simple SPP to control my Gemini1 mount. It worked fine in 32-bit Win7 on the now-retired Lenovo I should add.
Maybe I've done it wrong. Probably have, but here's the problem:
The bluetooth settings allow me to add a serial port and give me the choice of an incoming or an outgoing connection. I have chosen outgoing and sure enough up pops a new Com3 port. So far, seems about right.
But when I enter the ASCOM setup for the Gemini and go to identify the Com port to use, the choice drop-down shows not Com3 but Com3o and ASCOM then reports that it can't find any such port.
OK, so it's me, but can someone gently steer me in the right direction.
Peter

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #2 05-09-2011, 11:22 AM

Hi Peter I can answer this...you won't like the answer though.

Bluetooth stack software (part of the BT drivers on your machine) creates virtual ports (software emulated ports) to convert the BT I/O to use-able data...in this case to emulate the serial port protocol (SPP mode).

However there is an issue with some BT software (I'm talking MS BT software interact with MS netframework) in that it does not write (get) the COM port numbers (null values) correctly via netfamework. I have seen this in WINXp, and WIN7 machines...but not all machines.

You will see funny COM port numbers like:COM3o; COM7c...yadda yadda. For some reason the "null value" of the port...aka the last digit is not written correctly.

You can re-write this port by entering "regedit" and re-entering the COM port data but his is a temporary fix.

The only way I found the fix the issue was to use a 3rd party BT software like Toshiba BT stack. See here post #11 onwards.

Another fix maybe see if your lappy mfgr has their own BT software...not the MS stuff?

Hope this helps

pmrid (Peter) · #3 05-09-2011, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wasyoungonce

Hi Peter I can answer this...you won't like the answer though.

Urgh!You're right.
I'm heading to Kuala Lumpur tonight for work and will mist certainly end up going to Low Yat Plaza several times for my regular fix of geek mania. I always come back from there with excess baggage full of bits and pieces. So, the question is, what brand/make/model of bluetooth dongle should I try to get do you think. Something with the Toshiba BT stack in it's innards I suppose.
Did I mention that this same dongle worked fine in a 32-Bit Win7 envoonment?
Peter

supernova1965 (Warren) · #4 05-09-2011, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pmrid

Urgh!You're right.
I'm heading to Kuala Lumpur tonight for work and will mist certainly end up going to Low Yat Plaza several times for my regular fix of geek mania. I always come back from there with excess baggage full of bits and pieces. So, the question is, what brand/make/model of bluetooth dongle should I try to get do you think. Something with the Toshiba BT stack in it's innards I suppose.
Did I mention that this same dongle worked fine in a 32-Bit Win7 envoonment?
Peter

if it worked in 32bit then the dongle maker may not have 64bit drivers available it sounds like a driver issue to me.

pmrid (Peter) · #5 05-09-2011, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supernova1965

if it worked in 32bit then the dongle maker may not have 64bit drivers available it sounds like a driver issue to me.

I've just tried 2 different BT dongles and in each case windows goes off and searches the web for the current drivers - so I'm assuming it knows what it wants/needs. But each dongle (3 different ones now) all produce more or less the same results - I ran the ASCCOM diagnostic and interestingly, the first time round it popped up a list of Com ports that were 'normal' but then hung when I tried to connect to the scope.
Then, each successive time, we were back to that silly format of Com3o or Como3 or even Com3CHINESECHARACTER
If it's drivers, it's across all brands.
I note that I'm using the new ASCOM6.
ANyone know of any issues with BT and ASCOM6?
Peter

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #6 05-09-2011, 04:38 PM

The issue, I think, is more to do with the way netframework gets the port values from the relevant BT software.

I have seen this issue on WINXP 32bit, WIN7 32Bit and Win 64Bit....yet I am running ok with a WINXP ACER netbook (don't laugh..I purchased an ACER) with mfgr BT software and fixed the issue on a WINXP lappy by installing Toshiba BT stack software.

Many of the lappy mfgers offer their own BT software that is different from the plain vanilla MS stuff.

The issue could be to do with hardware....but I don't think so ATM as this has been around since 2006!

The easiest fix is to install 3rd party BT software such as Blusoleil or Toshiba BT stack.

edit:
I spoke to Paul and Tom of the Gemini ASCOM forum on this previously and they suggest the easiest fix was to install a different BT software...aka as above.

pmrid (Peter) · #7 05-09-2011, 05:22 PM

I wish there was a workable alternative to BT that would work with ASCOM - or alternatively that you could still get legacy RS232 ports on motherboards. I guess I could get a PCI card with some ports on it so at least I could cable up without having to use USB-RS232 connections that are just as flakey.

Peter

mithrandir (Andrew) · #8 06-09-2011, 07:25 AM

I have a new Toshiba with builtin BT running Win7Pro 64 bit.

The BT Gemini transceiver (thanks Brendan) is only showing up as one COM port rather than the two that XP saw.

It is listed as COM40. Not COM12o and COM13o like XP kept doing every time it got rebooted or the dongle removed and inserted. I might be able to get it to work more reliably now.

I did the regedit twostep with XP and it is wierd. The port number gets saved in the registry (the worst idea M$ ever had) with a trailing NULL character so framework must not treat it as a NULL terminated string.

I have a similar problem to Peter with a USB GPS receiver. There's no serial port for my other GPS and this one will only provide one virtual COM port at 115200 bps. Every bit of software I have wants no more than 38400. VSPE for 64 bit is not free like it is for 32 bit.

mswhin63 (Malcolm) · #9 06-09-2011, 09:10 AM

I have also tried 3 drivers on mine and came up with different results. The Toshiba was the best but only shareware and expired. The original one worked fine but the 2nd one came up with the same result as now.

Drivers though are hit and miss.

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #10 06-09-2011, 12:15 PM

It's a damn "hair puller" problem.

It doesn't appear related to new hardware & dongles but more to do with netframework getting/writing the port values.

It appears 3rd party software fixes this so why is the MS stuff so poor after years of this still being an issue. I mean this issue has been around for some time across various OS & hardware platforms.

There are some suggested fixes in this MS summary of the issue but I have never followed them up nor know how to apply them.